In a bid to stop the hepatitis B virus, the leading cause of liver cancer, a liver expert, Professor Jesse Otegbayo, has stated the need to identify the factors that encourage the spread of hepatitis in Nigeria and thereafter seek means and ways of preventing them.
Otegbayo, also the Chief Medical Director of the University College Hospital, stated this in his inaugural lecture at the University of Ibadan, entitled “The Human Workhorse and Microbial Afflictions: Hepatitis B, its Fatal Sting, and The Tragic Trajectory.”
According to him, the burden of hepatitis B is huge, with hepatitis prevalence ranging from 6 percent to 25 percent in Nigeria and more than 20 million people living with hepatitis B, C, or both, even though more than 80 percent of these people are not aware of having the disease.
He declared that the hepatitis B virus is highly infectious and is generally transmitted from mother to child or from person to person because its transmissible form is found in all body fluids, such as blood, semen, sweat, saliva, and urine.
Professor Otegbayo said that health workers, men having sex with men, infants of infected mothers, and multiple sexual partners stand a higher risk of acquiring Hepatitis B infection, but the most common source of the infection is through bloodletting because of scarification and indiscriminate injections.
He declared that the most tragic consequence of hepatitis B entering the liver is liver cancer, as death at diagnosis in Nigeria is dishearteningly short, just about six weeks to three months.
“In Nigeria, liver cancer is the fourth most common cancer. The kind of liver cancer it causes is very deadly; most of our patients that we see with this cancer usually die within 6 weeks and 3 months after they present with a late diagnosis.
“The European Union is saying that by 2040, the incidence of the cancer that we are seeing now will double. Currently, about 8 million people die annually because of this cancer, and that number will increase to 13.2 million.
“We need to take measures like childhood immunisation with hepatitis B and screening for viral hepatitis either before going to school, before employment, or before marriage. The implementation of these strategies will result in a decrease in the prevalence of liver cancer, which might potentially be eliminated as vaccination can completely prevent certain types of liver cancer, including hepatitis B.
“The sting of hepatitis B is fatal, and the trajectory of hepatitis B in the liver is tragic; all of us must be ready to kill this bee that has no honey in it.”
According to the don, promoting liver health in Nigeria requires more funding for research on viral hepatitis and vaccine production, making healthcare cost-effective by utilising the national health insurance scheme in all sectors, the designation of regional specialised centres of excellence for infectious and liver disease, and the provision of well-managed hospice and palliative care.
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